1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the delivery of product orders. In particular, the invention relates to a system by which a delivery or pick up order can be placed over the Internet to one of a plurality of potential vendors.
2. Background Art
In recent years, the Internet has rapidly become a prominent aspect of commerce throughout many areas of the world due to its efficiency and convenience. Furthermore, the Internet offers consumers access to a breadth of information and services greater than ever before. The concept of “electronic commerce” has now become a reality whereby a consumer can purchase goods via the Internet. Consumers can view both descriptions and pictures of items offered for sale via a web browser, place an order and make payment via a web site. While sitting at a computer, within mere minutes a person can comparison shop at numerous stores across the country, and even the world.
However, certain types of commerce for which the Internet can be effectively employed still depend upon the geographic proximity between a user wishing to purchase goods and/or services and a business offering goods and services. Specifically, some services, such as the delivery of prepared food items, are provided by a business only to customers located within a specific predefined geographic area relative to the business' location. Therefore, while a user in New York could easily access a Chicago pizzeria's web site via the Internet and order a pizza for delivery to New York, such an order would not typically be fulfilled. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to identify business locations that have service areas covering the user's location.
Oftentimes, a user may wish to order a product or service from one of a chain of related businesses, such as a pizza delivery franchise, over the Internet. Franchisees are typically assigned rigidly defined market areas by the franchiser. Furthermore, a franchisee business may desire to include or exclude specific geographic regions from its assigned service area. Therefore, it is highly desirable, and an object of this invention, to allow vendors to customize and very accurately define specific geographic areas that they wish to service via orders placed over the Internet.
One prior art technique for correlating users with local service providers relies upon the user providing his postal zip code to a central computer server operated by or on behalf of the business. The central computer then determines which if any relevant businesses service the user's zip code. The list of relevant businesses identified by the server can either be returned to the user, or else the central office can automatically select one business to which the order is to be placed. However, this model is of limited utility insofar is it correlates users to local businesses by matching postal zip codes—which are arbitrarily predefined regions unrelated to typical delivery area boundaries that may be desired by a business. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide for the arbitrary implementation of service area boundaries for orders placed via the Internet.
Another technique for correlating Internet consumers with local businesses is disclosed by Cupps, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,739. The Cupps et al. technique involves the generation of an arbitrary geographic grid through which the world is divided into an array of quadrilateral regions. Each region is assigned an identifier code which is a function a series of longitude and latitude coordinates. A business providing a service over a defined geographic area, such as a food delivery business, can therefore associate itself with identifier codes for each of the grid regions within its defined delivery region. When a customer desires to place an order, the customer's address is received by a central computer server, and therein associated with a specific geographic grid or region. Businesses that service the customer's location can then be rapidly identified by indexing the store delivery grid database with the customer geographic grid or area. The customer is then presented with a selection of businesses whose associated service areas include the grid in which the service is to be provided. The customer can choose a desired business, and electronically transmit an order to the central server. The central server then relays the order to the selected business via a telephone call by an interactive voice system.
Cupps et al. provides for faster correlation between customers and businesses, and increased flexibility in business service area definition, compared to the zip code matching prior art, insofar as the geographic areas associated with the service area can be smaller than postal zip codes. However, by defining the location of the customer and the business' service areas in terms of predetermined geographic areas, the Cupps et al. technique inherently introduces uncertainty and imprecision to the positional identification of both the consumer, and the borders of a business service area.
In areas of commerce with very tightly defined service boundaries, such as pizza delivery franchises, accurate and precise association of customers with store service areas is particularly important. Franchisees who provide service to areas outside of their assigned territory may violate or breach their franchise agreements and be subject to penalty or even termination of their franchise rights. Franchisers often look to police franchisee activities to protect adjacent franchisees. Because the Cupps et al. technique is based upon a predefined grid, it is susceptible to erroneous and imprecise correlation between stores and customers. One source of imprecision is that each store must define its service region in terms of the predetermined grid areas, rather than a geographic definition corresponding to the service area. A second source of error is that a customer is referenced by association with a geographic grid or area, rather than the customer's actual position. Furthermore, as grid size is reduced linearly, the complexity and inefficiency of the Cupps et al. algorithm increases geometrically due to the geometrically increasing number of quadrilateral grid areas that must be stored and searched within the service area database. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to correlate Internet customers with business service areas to a degree of accuracy limited only by the precision of commercially available mapping software.
As use of the Internet becomes increasingly prevalent, many more businesses will have digital communication network access available in-store, via either a dedicated Internet connection or a telephone line modem or other communication device capable of receiving data or information transmissions. Furthermore, stores often use electronic Point Of Sale (“POS”) order systems for the electronic entry and tracking of orders placed by customers who place orders by telephone. Accordingly, it is also an object of this invention to utilize communications networks to transfer a customer's order from a central server to a store's POS for automatic entry into a selected store's order system, whereby the order is processed automatically as if it were entered in-store.
The POS order systems used by many delivery businesses incorporate street address files to identify and log locations to which orders are delivered. In implementing an Internet order delivery system for such businesses, it may be beneficial, when possible, to match a customer's location with a particular entry in the store's street address file. By correlating the customer's location to the in-store delivery area file, an order placed electronically can be automatically processed by an existing POS system according to the pre-existing order protocol. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to correlate customers with stores using a street address file defined for each store.
Many areas utilize vanity addresses, or other non-standard addresses, that may not appear in commercially available location indexing software packages. For example, a customer located on the 63rd floor of the Sears Tower, in Chicago, Ill., may enter a delivery address of 6300 Sears Tower, Chicago, Ill. Likewise, a student on a college campus may enter the room number and name of a dormitory, rather than the actual dormitory street address. Insofar as such vanity addresses are not actual street addresses, they typically may not appear in common address/geographic databases. Therefore, many prior art systems, such as the Cupps et al. system, may fail to automatically process such an order. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to allow a business to extend its definition of acceptable service areas to include non-standard addresses.
One particular object of the present invention is to provide a registration engine to enroll users and at the time of enrollment associate one or more business locations who serve the user's geographic location such that when the user logs into the system at a later time the system will recognize the user and provide the previously identified business locations from which the user may order goods or services.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a marketing engine whereby a business' POS system can update the central server with store manager specials relating to price or items or services offered to thereby provide highly customized offerings to user's who have a particular association with a business location. For example, a pizza store located near a college campus may offer “homecoming” specials while a store across town that does not deliver to the campus location may not.
Yet another object of the present invention is the provision of a unique POS identification such that users who access a particular business's records stored on the central computer view a unique visual presentation which may differ from that offered to a user who seeks another business.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the present specifications, drawings and claims.